Tag: St. Louis Cardinals

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post originally appeared on Agony & Ivy on Aug. 8, 2010.

BY CHRIS REWERSEDITOR

The 1984 Cubs ushered in the “yuppie era” at Wrigley Field. Seemingly overnight, the ballpark transformed from a slowly decaying, outdated, quirky facility to a 40,000-seat singles bar, a tourist attraction, and a baseball shrine. Harry Caray went from being an old, washed-up White Sox announcer to the hip grandfatherly Cub Fan, Bud Man. The bars that surrounded the park changed from quaint family-owned dives with juke boxes to corporate-owned establishments with dee jays. In the old days, the surrounding rooftops were usually empty and only occasionally would someone be seen watching the game from an across-the-street perch. After Ryno, Jody, The Sarge, and The Penguin, the rooftops became Big Business.

When the Tribune Company bought the Cubs, they expressed their desire to install lights at Wrigley Field but the ball did not really begin rolling until the explosion in the Cubs’ popularity after the ’84 division championship season.

There was some opposition to night baseball from groups like Citizens United for Baseball in the Sunshine, but with Major League Baseball applying much of the pressure, the installation of lights at Wrigley Field seemed inevitable. On Feb. 25, 1988, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance permitting the Cubs to play 18 night games annually through 2002. Eight night games were permitted for the 1988 season.

Construction of Wrigley Field’s six light towers began on April 7, 1988 and was completed on June 21.

The 1988 eight-game slate of night games was announced by the Cubs on June 20 with the first scheduled for Aug. 8. Demand for tickets to the 8-8-88 game was so great that a promotion by WGN Radio and True Value awarding 500 tickets received 400,000 applicants.

It certainly was the first baseball game at Wrigley Field scheduled under lights, but it was not the first night game. On Friday, June 25, 1943 the Cubs and Cardinals played a game at the Friendly Confines that was promoted as a “twilight game” and began at 6 p.m. Cubs pitcher Hi Bithorn, no doubt aided by the long shadows of the grandstand, pitched a two-hit complete game in the Cubs’ 6-0 victory.

The game lasted 2 hours, 17 minutes and was completed 13 minutes before sunset on what is one of the longest days of the year. As the Cardinals batted in the ninth, I imagine that it resembled a scene that played out in our neighborhood on so many occasions while I was growing up. Our evening pickup games would continue until we couldn’t see the ball, long after the streetlights had gone on.

As novel as that evening, it was not a rousing success at the box office. A wartime crowd of just 6.620 turned out which helps explain why the game has been long forgotten. I’ve never heard any of the old-timer Cubs fans I know discuss it. It also explains why the promotion was not repeated in subsequent years.

The Cubs’ 1943 season attendance of 508,247 was and still is the lowest total for the franchise since 1921 (strike years included).

Back to 1988:

I lucked out and had a pair of tickets to the Cubs-Phillies game on Monday, Aug. 8, 1988. I was 18. I purchased the tickets early in the season (they still listed a starting time of 1:20 p.m.), long before the night schedule was announced. The thought of scalping the tickets never crossed my mind.

I considered taking a friend to the game, but it was only a fleeting thought. My 68-year-old grandfather was the reason I was a Cubs fan and by far was the person who had taken me to the most games. Realizing the significance of the evening, it was a no-brainer. I had to take Pops.

Aug. 8 was typical hot and sticky Chicago summer day with the temperature in the 90s and no breeze to speak of. As Pops and I exited the Red Line train at the Addison stop, we noted that the flags atop the center-field were limp.

The Cubs announced that they were opening the park that night an hour earlier than usual, at 4:30, and we decided that we wanted to be there when the gates were raised. We wanted to be there for all the pregame festivities and also wanted to take advantage of a rare opportunity to watch the Cubs take batting practice.

The Cubs are usually done with BP by the time the Wrigley gates open. I’ve seen visiting teams take their pregame hacks at the Friendly Confines on hundreds of occasions, but that special night 22 years ago is still the only time I have seen the Cubs take BP in their home ballpark.

We had long been in our seats in Section 209, Row 15 and the grandstand was about half full when master of ceremonies Jack Brickhouse introduced 91-year-old Harry Grossman at 6 p.m. The crowd was instructed to holler, “Let there be lights!” on the count of three. When we did so, at 6:06 p.m., Grossman hit a switch that ended a 74-year tradition on the North Side. Hell had frozen over.

I asked my grandfather if he ever thought he’d live long enough to see what was happening before our eyes. He shook his head and i could see that he was choked up. It was a bittersweet moment for a man who attended his first game at Wrigley Field in the 1930s. The emotions that must have been washing over him were something that, because of my age and relative lack of experience as a fan, I could not totally relate to.

As the ballpark continued to fill up, the atmosphere that was developing was anything but typical. It reminded me of a postseason crowd – a lot of big shots and many more who were either casual fans or not Cubs fans at all. The event had taken precedence over the game.

Shortly after 7 p.m., in the instant that Rick Sutcliffe delivered the game’s first pitch to Philadelphia’s Phil Bradley, hundreds of flashbulbs lit up Wrigley Field. Three pitches later, Bradley launched a drive onto Waveland Avenue. It was an inauspicious start.

Up next was Ryne Sandberg and as the future Hall of Famer strolled to the batter’s box, Morganna “The Kissing Bandit” emerged from a section along the right-field line near the Phillies bullpen and charged toward home plate. The well-endowed trespasser never came close to planting one on Ryno. She was intercepted by several security guards by the time she reached the infield dirt and quickly was led away. The crowd booed.

On my tape of that evening’s broadcast, Steve Stone described what a great job the security crew did in apprehending Morganna.

“They may have done a great job, but it doesn’t say much for their imaginations,” was Caray’s response.

When the game resumed, Sandberg promptly homered into the left-field bleachers, near the well area, to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. The Cubs handed out white “Opening Night” caps (it remains one of my prized possessions) to fans as they passed through the turnstiles, and as Sandberg trotted around the bases, the fans waved their caps in the air. The Wrigley Field stands were a sea of white.

The Cubs added another run in he third inning, but by that time it was obvious that a storm was near. A stiff breeze kicked up and the air became noticeably cooler. Rumbles of thunder could be heard.

As the always-deliberate Sutcliffe worked in the top of the fourth, a flash of lightning caused the crowd to shutter and several moments later, at around 8:30, it started to, in the words of my grandfather, “Rain like hell.” The tarp was unrolled and placed over the infield.

Fortunately, the upper deck sheltered us from the deluge. As we waited for play to hopefully resume, we drank beer, we talked, we drank some more beer, we talked some more.

At about 9:30, a very young Greg Maddux, Jody Davis, Les Lancaster, and Al Nipper emerged from the Cubs dugout and entertained the crowd with several tarp slides. It was funny, but I also remember being concerned about our young 15-game winner’s health. Fortunately, there wasn’t a Cubbie Occurence but the quartet was later fined by a less-than-amused manager Don Zimmer.

Predictably, some fans, taking a cue from Maddux and Co., also decided to join in the tarp-sliding fun. Security spent much of the next hour running down those yahoos.

It continued to pour and at 10:30, umpire Jim Quick emerged from the third-base dugout and signaled to those who remained that the game was called. All records were scrapped and the game was replayed in its entirety as part of a September doubleheader.

The first official game under the lights was played on Aug. 9 as the Cubs topped the New York Mets 6-4.

I relaized that my Aug. 8 ticket stubs were possibly of value, but couldn’t pass up a free game. I exchanged them at the Wrigley Field box office and I took Pops to see the Cubs lose to the Cardinals on Sept. 16. It was as unmemorable as the Aug. 8 rainout was memorable. Oh well.

A popular theory regarding the Cubs’ failure to win a National League pennant since 1945 was the lack of night baseball at Wrigley Field until 1988. Playing under the sun on a daily basis, wore down the Cubs year after year. This maybe so, but pitcher Bill Hands, who won 20 games for the 1969 Cubs, disagreed.

In The Cubs of ’69 (Contemporary Books, 1989), Hands told Rick Talley that exclusive day baseball provided the Cubs with the ultimate homefield advantage. While Cubs players were often at home with their families getting a good night’s sleep, visiting teams were carousing on Division Street late into the night.

“If we would have won, everybody would be playing more day games today,” Hands said.

(Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Agony & Ivy on Jan. 16, 2011.)

By CHRIS REWERSEDITOR

When newly-acquired pitcher Don Cardwell arrived at Wrigley Field on May 15, 1960 he was still toting a Philadelphia Phillies gym bag.

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Boudreau selected the 24-year-old right-hander to pitch Game 2 of a Sunday doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cardwell had never worked with Cubs catcher Del Rice before and the pair decided between games to keep it simple. Cardwell did not throw a slider the entire afternoon.

“Fastballs did it for me,” Cardwell said. “I threw almost all fastballs in the early innings … I just wanted to hum.”

Did he ever.

Cardwell walked the second batter of the game, Alex Grammas, and then set down the final 26 batters he faced. Cardwell’s no-hitter included plenty of late-inning drama for the 33,543 in attendance.

Don Cardwell set down the final 26 St. Louis Cardinals he faced.

Darryl Spencer led off the eighth with a hot smash, but second baseman Jerry Kindall made a sensational stop and threw out Spencer at first by a step.

Carl Sawatski led off the ninth and ripped a 1-and-2 pitch to deep right, but George Altman made a leaping, one-handed grab on the warning track. Cardwell fell behind 2-and-0 on the next hitter, George Crowe, but recovered to retire him on a lazy fly to center fielder Richie Ashburn.

Joe Cunningham stood between Cardwell and history. Cunningham was upset with a strike call by home plate umpire Tony Venzon on a 3-and-1 pitch.

“And Cunningham is barking at Venzon,” Cubs radio play-by-play man Jack Quinlan reported. “He is letting him have it. He is really peeved at Venzon!”

Joe Cunningham and home plate umpire Tony Venzon exchange pleasantries with two outs in the top of the ninth.

Cunningham stepped back in the box and then drilled Cardwell’s full-count offering the opposite way to left. It looked like a sure hit, but with Jack Brickhouse screaming, “C’mon, Moose! C’mon, Moose!” left fielder Walt “Moose” Moryn made a sensational shoestring catch.

Cardwell was mobbed by his teammates and by many of the fans who jubilantly raced onto the playing field. It took Cardwell more than 20 minutes to fight his way through the mob and into the Cubs clubhouse.

“This fame may mean I’ll never pitch again because while all the fans were crowding around me, they kept standing there beating on my shoulder and pulling on my arm like they wanted a souvenir – me!” Cardwell said. “But it was worth it.”

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Agony & Ivy on Oct. 4, 2010.

BY CHRIS REWERS EDITOR

The Chicago Cubs’ chances of winning a second straight world championship and third straight National League pennant were not looking promising on Aug. 16, 1908 when Philadelphia right-hander George McQuillan outdueled the Cubs’ Jack Pfiester in a 1-0 Phillies victory at Chicago’s West Side Grounds.

The loss was their ninth in 12 games and dropped them to a season-high six games behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates and three behind the second-place New York Giants.

But the Cubs regrouped and closed August with nine straight wins – including a three-game series sweep of the Giants in Chicago – and as the calendars flipped to September the National League’s usual suspects were gearing up for an intense three-team pennant race.

The Cubs and New York headed into September in a first-place tie. The Pirates, who had dropped to third after closing August with eight losses in 14 games, were just a half-game back.

During the first decade of the last century, the National League consisted of the haves (Cubs, Giants, Pirates) and the have-nots (Phillies, Reds, Braves, Dodgers, Cardinals). From 1901-13, the NL pennant was won by the Cubs (4 times), New York (5), and Pittsburgh (4). From 1903-12, those three teams occupied the top three spots of the NL standings eight times.

On paper, you could have argued that the Giants and Pirates were superior to the banged-up Cubs as the season entered the home stretch. The Giants had the best pitcher, Christy Mathewson, having his best season (37-11, 1.43 ERA). The Pirates possessed the best player, Honus Wagner, who was en route to his sixth of eight batting titles.

The Cubs had been ravaged by a series of injuries and many of their regulars missed significant time. Most notably, left fielder Jimmy Sheckard missed two months and was nearly blinded after an ammonia bottle was smashed on his face during a clubhouse fight with teammate Heinie Zimmerman in June.

But the Cubs had an intangible that many future Yankees teams, the Oakland Athletics of the early 1970s, the Cincinnati Reds of the mid-70s, and the Atlanta Braves of recent times were to have – and unwavering self-confidence.

“Whoever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to have?” player-manager Frank Chance once asked.

Frank Chance, “The Peerless Leader” (Library of Congress)

In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (The Free Press, 2001), the author noted that the Cubs won a single-season record 116 games in 1906 but that their 986 wins from 1904-13 is a major league record for any 10-year period.

In regards to the controversial selection to the Hall of Fame in 1946 of first baseman Chance, second baseman Johnny Evers, and shortstop Joe Tinker, James wrote:

“If you’re going to say that these guys don’t belong in the Hall of Fame, it seems to me, you have to deal somehow with the phenomenal success of their team. This team won more games, over any period of years, than the Yankees with Ruth and Gehrig, more games than the Dodgers with Robinson, Reese, Snider, and Campy, more games than the Reds with Bench, Morgan, Rose, and Concepcion – more games than anybody. When you start explaining their wins, as Ricky Ricardo would say, you’ve got a lot of ‘splaining to do.”

The Cubs opened September by taking three of four from the last-place Cardinals and then opened a crucial four-game series in Pittsburgh on Sept. 4. The Cubs and Pirates were tied for second, one game behind New York.

Cubs ace Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown and fellow future Hall of Famer Vic Willis hooked up in a tense pitcher’s duel at Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park. The game was scoreless in the bottom of the ninth and the Pirates had Fred Clarke on third and rookie Warren Gill on first with two outs. Chief Wilson lined a solid single to center. As Clarke crossed the plate, Gill took off for the center-field clubhouse ahead of his team’s jubliant fans who stormed the field. An observant Evers called for the ball from center fielder Jimmy Slagle and stepped on second, seeking a forceout. Umpire Hank O’Day, who was working the game solo (then a common practice), refused to call Gill out, claiming he had not been watching whether Gill had touched the base or not. Evers argued fervently, but to no avail.

Johnny Evers, “The Crab” (Library of Congress)

The Cubs split the four games with the Pirates, lost to Cincinnati on Sept. 7, and then rattled off seven wins in a row. But the Giants were even hotter. They opened September by winning 18 of 19 contests. After sweeping a doubleheader from Pittsburgh on Sept. 18, a confident New York club led the Cubs by 4.5 games and the Pirates by five.

In her fine recap of that terrific season, Crazy ’08 (HaperCollins, 2007), Cait Murphy noted that on Sept. 20, the New York World estimated the chances of the Cubs or Pirates overtaking the Giants akin to that of a “snowfall on the Fourth of July.” The World and New York Times both ran stories examining who the Giants might meet in the World Series.

“Sportswriters can be excused for saying stupid things; it is part of their job,” Murphy continued. “What is unpardonable is that the Giants begin to preen.”

“I can’t see how we can lose unless we all drop dead,” pitcher Red Ames said in mid-September.

The Cubs trailed the Giants by two games when they arrived in New York for a four-game series on Sept. 22 and the Cubs served notice that they would be in the race until the end by opening the set with a doubleheader sweep to move into a first-place tie. Brown entered in the ninth of the opener and saved a 4-3 win for starter Orval Overall. Brown started the nightcap and went the distance in a 3-1 Cubs triumph.

First place was on the line on Sept. 23 as Pfiester squared off against Mathewson and it would turn out to be perhaps the most controversial game in baseball history.

A two-man umpiring crew was assigned to the game. Bob Emslie worked the bases and O’Day – the same umpire who had worked the Gill game on Sept. 4 – was calling balls and strikes.

Another major player in the ensuing drama was the 19-year-old Merkle who was making his first major league start. Regular first baseman Fred Tenney missed his only game of the season because of lumbago and was replaced by the inexperienced Merkle who had appeared in just 35 games and made just 40 at-bats up to that point.

Pfiester and Mathewson were both superb. The Cubs managed a run in the fifth when Tinker circled the bases standing for an inside-the-park homer after hitting a gapper to left-center.

The Giants tied the game in the sixth on an RBI single by Mike Donlin.

Mathewson set the Cubs down in order in the top of the ninth and Pfiester appeared on the verge of escaping the bottom half without incident. With Moose McCormick on first and two outs, Merkle lined an opposite-field single to right. McCormick advanced to third as a standing-room-only crowd of over 20,000 roared with approval.

The next batter, Al Bridwell, lined a first-pitch fastball from Pfiester into center field. McCormick raced home with the winning run as the jubliant crowd poured onto the field. Merkle, hoping to avoid the rushing fans, took off for the clubhouse without touching second.

Perhaps the Gill game from earlier in the month was on the mind of O’Day because this time he was watching. Surrounded by the mob that had overtaken the field, Evers held a ball in his glove with his arm raised in a Statue of Liberty pose. Evers appealed to Emslie that since Merkle never touched second, he should be ruled forced out at second, nullifying the run. Emslie claims that he wasn’t watching Merkle. But O’Day said he was watching Merkle and agrees with Evers. He called Merkle out.

How did Evers get the ball amidst the chaos? Legend says that Giants coach Joe McGinnity intercepted a throw to the infield by Cubs center fielder Solly Hofman and fired it into the throng. The ball was caught by a man wearing a bowler hat, but it was wrestled away from him by Cubs pitcher Rube Kroh. Kroh ran back onto the field with the ball and handed it to Tinker. The Cubs shortstop ran to the bag and handed it to Evers.

Evers gave a much simpler account to Liberty magazine in 1936. He said he ran to the outfield, was handed the ball by Hofman, and fought his way through the crowd back to second base.

With dusk fast approaching and the impossibility of clearing the field in a timely matter, O’Day declared the game a tie. The Giants filed a protest of the umpire’s decision with the league office, but that night NL president Harry Pulliam upheld O’Day.

Pulliam declared that the game should be made up on Oct. 8. The Cubs weren’t completely satisfied with the ruling. They argued that the game should have been called a forfeit against the Giants because of their failure to clear the field.

The Giants beat the Cubs 5-4 the next day to retake first place, but the three-team heat continued into October. On Oct. 1, the Giants and Pirates were tied for first, a half-game ahead of the Cubs. First place changed hands five times with all three teams occupying the top in the season’s final week.

The Cubs opened October by winning three straight at Cincinnati.

The Giants, meanwhile, split four with the Phillies as Philadelphia rookie left-hander Harry Coveleski started and won both New York losses. The 22-year-old Coveleski, pitching every other day, claimed three of his four victories on the season in a five-day span against the Giants.

Harry Coveleski (Library of Congress)

The Pirates swept a three-game series at St. Louis and then headed to Chicago for a Oct. 4 makeup game. New York, which had played two less games than its rivals, was off but had a three-game makeup series at home scheduled with Boston, Oct. 5-7.

Pittsburgh (98-55) led the Cubs (97-55) by a half-game and New York (95-55) by 1.5.

A Sunday crowd of 30,247 – a then Cubs single-game record – packed West Side Grounds to see a matchup of aces Brown and Willis. The Cubs scored in the first inning on an RBI single by Frank Schulte and were ahead to stay en route to a 5-2 victory. The great Wagner had two hits for the Pirates, but the shortstop also committed two costly errors. The Cubs vaulted a half-game ahead of the Pirates.

Pittsburgh now had to sit and wait. They could tie for first with at least two Giants losses to lowly Boston and a Cubs loss on Oct 8. Two New York wins over Boston and one over the Cubs would force a three-way tie. A Giants sweep of the Braves would eliminate the Pirates.

The Giants topped the Braves 8-1 on Oct. 5, 4-1 on Oct. 6, and 7-2 on Oct. 7 to move into a first-place tie. The Pirates were eliminated and the stage was set for a winner-take-all contest between the Cubs and Giants at the Polo Grounds on Oct. 8.

A well-rested Mathewson got the starting assignment for the Giants while the Cubs countered with Pfiester.

Christy Mathewson (Library of Congress)

But Pfiester was on a very short leash. He was pulled by manager Chance with two outs in the first after a hit batsman, an RBI double by Donlin, and two bases on balls. In came Brown, pitching for the 12th time in 15 games. Brown was his usual fantastic self, allowing just one run over 8 1/3 innings.

Mathewson, meanwhile, was met with disaster in the third. Tinker led off the inning with a triple and scored the tying run on a Johnny Kling double. A two-out single by Schulte knocked in Kling with the go-ahead run and Chance soon followed with a two-run single to give the Cubs a 4-1 lead.

Brown completed the 4-2 Cubs victory by setting down New York on four pitches in the ninth.

Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown

After the final out, the Cubs ran for their lives to the clubhouse. Some members of the team were scathed.

“Some of our boys got caught up by the mob and beaten up some,” Brown remembered. “Tinker, (Del) Howard, and Sheckard were struck. Chance was hurt most of all. A Giant fan hit him in the throat and Husk’s voice was gone for a day or two in the World Series that followed. Pfiester got slashed on the shoulder by a knife.”

Police, with their revolvers pulled, guarded the Cubs clubhouse and a police escort drove them first to their Manhattan hotel and then to the train station. The Cubs waited to celebrate their third straight pennant until after they boarded their train for Detroit.

The Cubs rolled over the Tigers in the World Series for the second straight year, winning in five games. The Cubs stole a record 15 bases and Tinker hit the first Series homer in five years. Brown and Overall each won twice.

Overall struck out 10 and allowed just three hits in a 2-0 Series-clinching win on Oct. 14. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Detroit’s Boss Schmidt hit a tapper in front of the plate. It was fielded by the catcher Kling who fired to the first baseman Chance to record the final out.

The Cubs did not win another World Series until 2016, but their 1908 championship was considered to be an anticlimactic, ho-hum event. A crowd of just 6,210 witnessed the historic event at West Side Grounds.

AROUND THE MAJORS

The Seattle Mariners acquired veteran right-hander Yovani Gallardo (pictured right) from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for outfielder Seth Smith and picked up outfielder Jarrod Dyson from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for right-hander Nathan Karns.

STAT OF THE DAY

Gallardo, according to MLB.com, is one of nine pitchers with 180 or more innings pitched in at least seven of the last eight seasons, with 139 quality starts since 2009.

Saturday’s Best

Also On TV

College World SeriesMississippi State vs. Oregon State
ESPN
2 p.m. (CDT)
Oregon State’s 12-2 victory over Mississippi State on Friday set the stage for this elimination game. The winner will meet Arkansas in the best-of-3 championship.

Checking In

Cubs broadcaster Jim Deshaies, a left-handed pitcher who won 84 games in a 12-year major league career (1984-95), was born in Massena, N.Y. on June 23, 1960.

Checking Out

Rod Beck, an All-Star relief pitcher who earned 286 career saves in a 13-year major league career (1991-2004), was found dead at his Phoenix home by police officers responding to a call on June 23, 2008. He was 38. The cause of death was not publicly released by the Maricopa County coroner’s office. Beck saved 48 games for the San Francisco Giants in 1993 and 51 games for the NL wild-card winning Chicago Cubs in 1998.